Deadlines are not Negotiable

I always hit project deadlines.

I think its equally important to clients and members of the team to know that, come what may(!), we will deliver on the day we said we would.

There are three ways to ensure you always hit your deadline:

1. Stop “scope creep”.  Deal with all new features as “phase 2″ of the project.
2. Know what features you can push out without affecting your core success metrics.  Push them out at the slightest delay.
3. Have a backup plan.  Always.

Make sure everyone knows that the deadline is non-negotiable, and expect everyone (including clients) to make sacrifices to hit the date.

The only time you should break this cardinal rule is when the final deliverable isn’t “good enough”.

Sometimes you’ve done everything right - every task, every follow-up, every test, client reviews - and the end product is just “not good enough”.

When this happens I throw out the initial timeline (never try “pushing back” your due date) suck it up, go back to the drawing board, and start again.

For me, the only thing worse than not being dependable is being second-rate.

(note: Mercury Grove’s first major web design was cut at the last minute)

This entry was posted on Thursday, June 26th, 2008 at 1:32 am and is filed under Misc.... You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.